charlotte salomon: art, life and theater
I first encountered Charlotte Salomon’s gorgeous gouaches at Amsterdam’s Joods Historich Museum in 2002, and they’ve stayed with me ever since. I was just longing to see them again the other day and checking out the book, when I received an email about a new play based on her work.
Born in Berlin to a family fractured by suicides, Charlotte escaped to France’s Cote d’Azure for two years during World War II. During that time, she created over a thousand paintings to literally and metaphorically gain authorship of her life, resulting in a masterpiece graphic novel opera of life and love called “Life? or Theater? a Play with Music.” In 1943, shortly before she was deported to Auschwitz at 26, she gave the gouaches to a friend of the family, saying: ‘Take good care of them. They are my whole life.’
The Charlotte Salomon Project begins as soon as you enter the space and are greeted by characters acting out scenes from her childhood amidst imagery from her art. Mixing up the paintings, installation and action on and off the stage, the play succeeds at bringing Salomon’s work to life… and theater.
- Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre? is available in print.
- Joods Historich Museum features an extensive online image gallery.
- If you’re in New York, don’t miss The Charlotte Salomon Project, a moving and immersive play based on her life and art, incorporating the text, visuals and story from her paintings. (November 1-19, 2006 – tickets)
- Reading Charlotte Salomon, an interesting collection of scholarly essays on Salomon’s work edited by Michael P. Steinberg and Monica Bohm-Duchen, was published in August, 2006.
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